Youth
Falls Church native Amaker's selection of W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia, was controversial. Amaker's mother was a Fairfax County teacher, which at the time gave her the freedom to choose where her son went to high school. She felt Amaker would be able to play on the varsity team at Woodson as a freshman, because coach Red Jenkins had been impressed with Amaker's youth summer league game performances since the time Amaker was ten years old. Amaker's dominance at Woodson has been cited as the reason why teachers do not have the same freedom to choose that they formerly did. Amaker did earn the starting job by December of his freshman year.
His mother, a high school English teacher, was his first coach. His mother attended his practices and graded papers in the coaches' office. His coach, Jenkins, referred to him as "T-bird".
Amaker, who grew up in Fairfax, was the first freshman to make varsity in W.T. Woodson history. He played on the 1983 McDonald's All-American Team and was also named to the Parade All-American team. Krzyzewski had been in town to evaluate Johnny Dawkins and got a chance to see Amaker play. Amaker had wanted to play for the Maryland Terrapins because his sister Tami went there and he idolized Maryland star guard John Lucas. He was recruited to Duke by assistant coach Chuck Swenson, who would later serve as an Amaker assistant.
Read more about this topic: Tommy Amaker
Famous quotes containing the word youth:
“If youth but knew; if age but could.”
—Henri Estienne (1531–1598)
“Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
But where unbruisèd youth with unstuffed brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows for the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)